U.S. Rep. Wasserman Schultz to introduce tougher tax-ID theft bill

U.S. Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz said Friday she will introduce tougher tax-refund identity theft legislation as South Florida endures an escalating "epidemic" of cases.

Just in the last couple of months, the Broward Sheriff's Office has been swamped with 1,000 reports of identities stolen before letigimate taxpayers could even file their 2011 tax returns.

"The federal government must become more vigilant in stopping tax-related identity theft," Wasserman Schultz said at her press conference at the Broward Sheriff's Office headquarters in Fort Lauderdale.

She and BSO Sgt. Jay Leiner called it an escalating epidemic.

"It was bad last year -- now it's obscene," said Fort Lauderdale certified public accountant Ronald Myers who also appeared at Wasserman Schultz's press conference.

South Florida tax preparers are seeing up to 8 percent of their clients' identity stolen before they can file 2011 tax returns, Myers said.

Wasserman-Schultz said she will introduce her bill in Congress Monday when she returns to Washington.The congresswoman said she will push for tougher sentences -- a minimum two-year prison sentence for each tax return identity theft conviction instead of the current up-to-two-year term. If suspects were convicted of, say, 10 counts of the theft, then they could face 20 years in prison.

"That would help deter," Wasserman Schultz said. Right now, she added, "it is a low-risk crime" that costs U.S. taxpayers $5.8 billion in fraudulent tax refunds in 2011.

Her bill, called Stopping Tax Offenders and Prosecuting Identity Theft Act or STOP IT, has bipartisan support, Wasserman Schultz said. The proposed law would protect both individual taxpayers and groups who also have been hit by the tax-return identity theft, she said.

The bill would also require the U.S. Department of Justice to focus on communities that have been hard hit by the tax identity theft, such as South Florida.

Broward, Palm Beach and Miami-Dade counties lead the nation's largest metro areas in reported identity theft, according to a report released last month by the Federal Trade Commission. The three counties had 17,546 reports of identity theft in 2011, or 324 complaints per 100,000 people.

"The DOJ needs to make it a higher priority," to combat the rash of identity theft, Wasserman Schultz said.

The theft prevents taxpayers from getting their legitimate tax refunds -- sometimes for more a year, the congresswoman said.

Result: Suffering victims who often need their tax refund to cover bills.

At the congresswoman's press conference, Joan Rubinstein of Pembroke Pines, said she couldn't pay her daughter's college expenses because thieves stole her identity before she could file her 2010 returns last year.

Rubinstein said she had to wait a year for her refund -- and that was only after she complained to Wasserman Schultz's office.

Rubinstein, a preschool teacher, said she tried to file her 2011 returns this year -- but identity thieves had already filed in her name.

"It's very frustrating that it's two years in a row," she said.

"I was very upset someone would take my Social Security number."

She's not alone.

BSO Sgt. Jay Leiner said his economic crimes unit has been deluged with 1,000 reports of tax-related identity theft just since February.

Part of the program is that many are still not taking identity theft seriously, Leiner said.

He said he recently saw a mother take her young son out of the car, leaving her purse on the front seat.

It contained the Social Security cards of the mother, her husband and their child as well as 14 credit cards.

Leiner urged South Floridians to not carry their Social Security numbers and to shred sensitive documents that contain personal financial information.

BSO Commander Michael J. Calderin said he refuses to give his Social Security number even at medical offices.

So far, doctors treat him anyway, he said.

A bill now before Congress that Wasserman Schultz is co-sponsoring would remove Social Security numbers from Medicare cards - a change many seniors have been seeking to help fight identity theft.

It places South Florida's more than 872,000 Medicare clients in a a potentially dangerous situation -- and identity thieves often target the elderly, authorities said.

Last September,U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Florida, filed tax-return identity theft legislation after holding a hearing. So far this year, his office has received 160 pleas for help from constituents whose identity was stolen and tax returns filed in their name.

Nelson's bill would make it a felony punishable by as much as five years in prison and a fine of no less than $25,000 for using another’s Social Security or Taxpayer Identification numbers to file a false federal tax return. It would also require the Internal Revenue Service to develop a nationwide PIN system that identity-theft victims can use on tax returns, similar to a pilot program the IRS is already using.

Nelson's law also would restrict public access to Social Security numbers of deceased taxpayers and require the IRS to improve cooperation with state and local law enforcement in identity theft cases.